Sisters wonder whether medication slowed reflexes

The 53-year-old Lawrence resident died this weekend after being struck by a train in North Lawrence. Railroad officials said it happened as she appeared to be trying to remove something from the train tracks.

Family members say they often worried about NewMoon because of her independent, rough-and-tumble life on Lawrence's streets, but they were shocked to hear she died the way she did.

NewMoon had struggles in life, they said, but she wasn't suicidal. She had heart troubles and had been at Lawrence Memorial Hospital last week, and her sisters said they wondered whether she was sedated or medicated at the time of her death.

"She had to have slow reflexes in order to not move away from the train," said Sunshine NewMoon, Jeannie's younger sister.

Sunshine NewMoon and another sister, Albertta, said they'd been told by police that a railroad employee saw NewMoon trying to remove a bicycle that was stuck on the tracks.

Angela Carmona created a photo collage to remember her longtime friend Jeannie NewMoon, the Lawrence woman who was killed by a train on Saturday. Carmona said Tuesday at her home that NewMoon was always strong-willed and well-liked.

Jeannie NewMoon was, physically, a male, according to the Douglas County coroner and Kansas Department of Corrections records. But she identified herself as a woman and was known by all her friends and family as a female.

A member of the Ponca tribe of Oklahoma, NewMoon came to Lawrence in the early 1980s and attended Haskell Indian Nations University. She earned a two-year degree in electronics and attended Kansas University, where she learned to work with metal and make jewelry.

In recent years, she often stayed in an RV she had inherited from her mother and was well-known at the Lawrence Community Shelter, 214 W. 10th St. She collected Social Security disability payments - family members say they're not sure for what - and she liked to ride motorcycles and repair things. She also loved to dress in camouflage.

"She lived day by day. Whatever came up, she did," Albertta NewMoon said. "Her friends came by, she would leave with her friends."

A longtime friend, Angela Carmona, said that NewMoon never backed down from a fight.

More about NewMoon

"She was always trying to prove she was a warrior, when we all knew that she was," Carmona said.

She went to prison briefly in the early 1990s for aggravated battery after being convicted of striking a man with the hammer end of a roofing hatchet. Despite the tough exterior, friends and family said NewMoon had many loyal friends in Lawrence who would miss her.

"She's left a lot of strong memories that are important to people here," said Loring Henderson, director of the community shelter.

Albertta NewMoon said: "I think she cared about her friends more than herself."

NewMoon's sisters came to Kansas from Arizona to make arrangements for funeral services and to try to gather her belongings, including eagle and hawk feathers that have been in the family for generations.

NewMoon will be cremated and buried next to her mother on the Gila River reservation in Arizona.

More like this story on LJWorld.com

Comments

Sedated or medicated?...C'mon, she was most likely tore up....She loved to drink and loved to do drugs....And she backed down from many fights or else she would of been murdered years ago.....
I hereby and publicaly give permission to the media and public that on the time of my death you are allowed....nay, posthumously ORDERED, to speak only the blunt truth about me....all transgressors will be haunted. Thank you.

I take offense at the inclusion of the paragraph describing her as "physically male" yet "identifying herself as a female" at all in this article. Who cares about that? If she considered herself a female, why mention that she was "physically male" at all? I didn't know her, but did it make any difference in the way she lived? If she considered herself a female, then we should consider her a female as well, regardless of whether or not she was physically equipped to be so. If you take that paragraph out of the story completely, the story is still the same. It sounds like she was a strong individual with people that cared about her and who touched people's lives. May she rest in peace.

Hermaphrodites are sterile. So she couldn't have a son if she was a hermaprhodite.

As for the gender thing, when a baby is born the doctor usually determines gender based on what is on the outside. Hermaprhodites may have partial or full sexual organs from both sexes. In which case, if this is visible on the outside, the doctor usually decides a gender, and surgery is performed on the baby to make them conform to the gender chosen by the doctor. In a lot of cases, doctors will choose to make the baby male, which I think is gender bias.

Not that it's important in the discussion, it's just kind of interesting to me, that's all.

I have to agree, Agilla. That paragraph was totally unnecessary. I don't think her gender issue WAS an issue with regard to her death. But, that's what people want to know! Seems a sad way to have lived and died. At least she did have people who cared about her and remember her for more than her mistakes.

I also think that was completely unnecessary for people to know. If it wasn't something you knew already, you didn't need to know it. It would be like someone dying in a motorcycle accident, and them just posting the person's sexual preference in the story. Seems irrelevant to the story.

I wonder why they decided to post her obit in the Lawrence paper if she is not going to be buried here. The reason I'm wondering is the woman that was beat to death my her boyfriend a few weeks back, did not have her obit posted in LJWorld.

Enforcer said: "I do not think this is an issue though, except for the press seems to make an issue of it, in the same way Loring Henderson has jumped on the bandagon to promote his Drop in Center, as he always does."

Loring Henderson said on the news last night: "She appeared to be heavily medicated. We were generally concerned about her."

Well Mr. Henderson, if you were so concerned why didn't you do something for a change? This is only another tragic blunder by the shelter. I am not saying that it would have worked but if you never try you'll never know.

Enforcer, It was her unpredictable, violent side that I couldn't be around. I can handle wild to a certain extent and even enjoyed her company, but by the late 80's or early 90s she became intollerable to be around.

KSChick, she had a prostate which makes her a male, but she had the other parts too making her a gynopolastic (sp) male.

I could care less about all this sex/sexual gender talk, I just want to know who is getting the RV and if I can make arrangements to pick it up. I was at the scene and didnt see a bike in the tracks. Any chance that this person just didnt want to be around anymore. I think I am leaning towards suicide on this one. ROugh life= Death in the end. Trust me on this one. Kind of like that homeless guy back when the Merc was on Mississippi laying in the alley that got ran over that was homeless. Any chance he was bending over trying to pick up his bike. I doubt it. These people live by the gun and die by it if you know what I mean (Alcohol/drugs) I mean I hate to sound harsh but why is it when somebody dies and everything points towards the person killing themself nobody wants to admitt this but rather come up with false stories about it. I guess I would have to see the police report to validate all this. The police know everything and are always right on everything. Why is it they still havent came out with the exact cause of death yet? I still thinking somebody out there knows something or this person got knocked out and thrown on the tracks if it wasnt suicide. Just speculation though. Just track back over the last 15-20 years on deaths of Native Americans and you might discover that there is this on going trend of deaths mysteriously that keeps on occurring. Is this all this just bad luck for the Indians or is there something going on that we all are missing out on. Come on people the truth is out there.

I WAS REALLY UPSET WHEN I SAW SO MUCH NEGATIVE INPUT ON A PERSON THAT HAD JUST DIED A TRAGIC DEATH. JEANNIE WAS A FRIEND TO BOTH ME AND MY HUSBAND. YEAH SHE HAD HER NEGATIVE SIDE BUT HER GOOD SIDE OUT WEIGHTED THE BAD. MOST PEOPLE WHO ARE BRINGING UP THE BAD SHOULD CLEAN UP THEIR BACKYARD BEFORE TRYING TO BRING UP THEIR NEIGHBORS. JEANNIE WAS VERY SPIRITUAL PERSON AND HAD A GREAT HEART. MAYBE YOU DON'T THIS BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T KNOW HER VERY WELL. AND FOR KELLY, YOU NEED NOT WORRY YOU HAVE BECOME A LARGE ASS BY YOUR WORDS IN THIS BLOG, SO NO NEED TO WORK AT IT ANY LONGER......JEANNIE GIRL, REST IN PEACE AND MAY YOUR SPIRIT LIVE FOREVER.
DEBBIE AND BO CHAFFEE

I wonder if we can look forward to gender specifications in ALL future stories of tragedy and death from here on?
What was the purpose of presenting this in the first place besides a writer's sick amusement.
How about the wreck on Tenn.st. yesterday?Was everybody's genitals in proper order there?Why didn't get a report on there sex organs with that article?

Enforcer said many good things but the moderators deleted her due to a hostile poster who has family issues and blmaes others. I don't post often here because of that issue, but someone has to keep the truth out there.